It almost goes without saying that Beyoncé Knowles is the queen of pop. There seems to be few artists who can compete with her when it comes to talent and on top of that, there are few who invest so much effort in trying to produce quality, both musically and on stage. Ultimately one can only stand in awe at this woman, as beautiful as she is talented and yet without t ever coasting. And still, she needed to redeem herself after the whole Sasha Fierce debacle back in 2008, a somewhat unbalanced ego-trip, excelling more in vocal swagger and trend recycling than in trying to unravel the inner psyche of the singer and her stage alter ego Sasha Fierce. In spite of good intentions, it was mainly Knowles’ voice and sincerity that salvaged the deal, although nothing could mask the fact that for the first time in her career, the singer has lost her musical edge to the newer – and to make thing worse less talented – generation of female pop singers.
Still, there is something about Beyoncé that demands awe and respect. That said, recording an album requires different skills. Without the physical presence, artists can generally fall back on one of two strategies. They could either do what is of-the-moment, thus appealing to a broad, usually not very critical audience. Or they stay the course, and bet it all on quality and credibility. The first option has never been Knowles’ thing – something I Am… quite painfully showed. Even if it’s a hit-and-miss game, the queen of R&B will think twice before she’d caught settling for the mediocrity of a niche that inherently like to keep standards low – especially when the others do it better. It’s not so much that flexibility is not her thing, rather is seemed somewhat beneath a singer of her caliber to be chasing Rihanna on her turf. It made for an uncomfortable split jump while in reality the hierarchy should work the other way around.
All in all Knowles is at her best when she is the fierce, empowered independent women she put forward with songs like ‘Single Ladies’ and ‘Diva’ or during her Destiny’s Child years. ‘Ladies if you love your man show him you’re the flyest’, the singer sings in Countdown. Of course none of those ladies stand a chance against B, but that aside you believe her. And lead single ‘Run the World (Girls)’ is actually quite a pleasant surprise, with its Major Lazor sample and vintage Beyoncé tenor. It’s never a complete gamble of course when you’ve got top producer Switch behind the mixing board with a sample that already proved its hit sensitivity in the club scene last year, but it is refreshing nonetheless. Not so great are some of the ballads on 4, which all too often sound stereotypical, a typical symptom of the notorious co-writer syndrome. ‘Best Thing I Never Had’ could have been written for almost any direct competitor and contrasts a bit too sharply with Knowles’ own domestic situation to retain some degree of credibility. And the theatrics reach their boiling point with ‘I Was Here’ which feels somewhat contrived for someone who so clearly still is here, perhaps now more than ever before. A better title might have been ‘I wasn’t here before, but I got my act together and I’m back now’, but of course that wouldn’t have had the same ring to it.
What is pleasant to see however is that instead of pursuing another somewhat insecure and strained attempt to remain with it, Beyoncé found her own voice again, regardless of what all the competition is doing. Truthfully, it wouldn’t have hurt to raise the bar just a tad when it comes to the writing on some of the ballads, but rather than sounding like an assortment of Rihanna-leftovers, Knowles is at least once again doing her own thing. Of course, that thing is contemporary R&B, a genre that is in general as reluctant to innovate as it is genuinely uninspired. It’s for that reason the dancehall-inspired ‘Run the World’ sounds so much like the odd one out on this album. While it is a well-intended attempt to step somewhat out of the box, it is so far from the musical direction of the rest of 4 that it almost does more harm than good. But while R&B may be a style of music that seems to measure quality by the degree of conformity to the market and the number of musical and lyrical clichés (love, betrayal, female empowerment and reusing the same generic beats over and over again), it’s laudable to see at least someone strong enough to resist the temptation of eurodance that infected R&B like a flesh-eating disease ever since David Guetta discovered the formula to turn his crap into gold (follow that lead, Amerie).
And the competition is fierce. There’s the kooky, yet ravishing girl next-door, who makes up for an obvious lack in vocal skills with her effortless charm. There is the eccentric, self-proclaimed pop-avant-gardist, who spends such a huge amount of her time trying to convince the world of the fact that she is somehow playing in a different league than the competition – contrary to what her at times uninspired tunes could suggest – all the while detaching herself more and more from the grips of reality, that it is nothing short of a miracle that she manages to produce records at all. There’s the gorgeous trend-hopper and Chris Brown survivor, who changes styles like a chameleon, all the while swopping personalities like Keanu Reeves. And heck, for the sake of argument you could even add the likes of Britney, Ke$ha, Nicki and J-Lo (thanks for nothing, Simon Cowell) to that list (but let’s not, though). But who (still) runs this world? In the end, it’s Beyoncé, whose overwhelming poise and stage presence can be paralleled by no one. To quote both the amazing Grace Jones and Duffy: ‘Well, Well, Well’.
Track List
1. 1+1
2. I Care
3. I Miss You
4. Best Thing I Never had
5. Party (ft. Andre 3000 & Kanye West)
6. Rather Die Young
7. Start Over
8. Love on Top
9. Countdown
10. End of Time
11. I Was Here
12. Run the World (Girls)
